Xiao Liu MBChB PhD
I am an Associate Professor in AI and Digital Health at the University of Birmingham and a Deputy Editor at NEJM AI. Previously, I was a Health Scientist at Apple, and before that I was an NHS ophthalmology doctor.I am interested in how we responsibly innovate and implement AI in health, with a focus on:
1) Safety
2) Effectiveness
3) EquityI lead collaborative efforts to create tools and frameworks to support researchers, innovators, health systems and regulators to evaluate AI.
About me
Hi, I'm Xiao (Xiaoxuan) Liu. Xiao is pronounced "Shau". I started my career in medicine, and worked for several years as an ophthalmologist before transitioning my career to focus on AI in health.I co-led the SPIRIT-AI & CONSORT-AI initiative in 2020: reporting standards for clinical trials evaluating AI systems - EQUATOR Network endorsed guidelines, which have since been adopted by international medical device regulators and medical journals including Nature Medicine and the Lancet. I am also on the steering group for DECIDE-AI, TRIPOD+AI and STARD-AI, reporting guidelines for early feasibility studies, prediction and prognostic models and diagnostic accuracy studies for AI, respectively.Recently, I led STANDING Together - a global initiative on tackling bias in health datasets to ensure AI benefits all. STANDING Together provides guidance for documentation of datasets to promote transparency, as well as guidance on how to address these biases and mitigate risks to minoritised and underserved groups. STANDING Together was referenced at the UK Safety Summit in 2023, and at the G20 Summit in Brazil in 2024.I work with regulators, government and policy institutions on their approach to evaluating AI in healthcare, including the WHO, MHRA, NICE, NHS England, BSI and the NHS AI Lab.I was previously a Health Scientist at Apple, where I led study design for development and validation of health algorithms for consumer wearables. Prior to this, I completed my PhD on validating an automated imaging-based technique to measure inflammation in the eye.My work has been featured in Wired, The Guardian, BBC Radio, The New Scientist and other news outlets, and recognised as Top Notable Advances of 2019 and 2020 by Nature Medicine.
Talks
Upcoming:
NICE Conference 2025 March 2025
NEJM-AI
I am a Deputy Editor at NEJM-AI. A journal focused on identifying and evaluating state-of-the-art applications of artificial intelligence to clinical medicine.
Community
SAIL
Programme Committee for SAIL (2022 - ongoing)The Alan Turing Institute
Special Interest Group for Clinical AI - Co-lead (2022-23)Data Science for Health Equity
Standards for Health Data Equity - Theme Lead (2022-23)
Selected Publications
Full list of publications here.Tackling algorithmic bias and promoting transparency in health datasets: the STANDING Together consensus recommendations Alderman JE, Palmer J, Laws E, ...Liu X. The Lancet Digital Health 2024.The value of standards for health datasets in artificial intelligence-based applications Arora M, Alderman JE, Palmer, J, Ganapathi S, Laws E, ...Liu X. Nature Medicine 2023.What's fair is… fair? Presenting JustEFAB, an ethical framework for operationalizing medical ethics and social justice in the integration of clinical machine learning: JustEFAB McCradden M, Odusi O, Joshi S, Akron I, et al. FAccT 2023.Tackling bias in AI health datasets through the STANDING Together initiative
Ganapathi S, Palmer J, Alderman JE, Calvert M, Espinoza C, Gath J, Ghassemi M, Heller K, Mckay F, Karthikesalingam A, Kuku S, Mackintosh M, Manohar S, Mateen BA, Matin R, McCradden M, Oakden-Rayner L, Ordish J, Pearson R, Pfohl SR, Rostamzadeh N, Sapey E, Sebire N, Sounderajah V, Summers C, Treanor D, Denniston AK & Liu X
Nature Medicine 2022.Editorial: Surfacing best practices for AI software development and integration in healthcare Sendak M, Vidal D, Trujillo S, Singh K, Liu X and Balu S. Front. Digit. Health 2023.The Medical Algorithmic Audit
Liu X, Glocker B, McCradden MM, Ghassemi M, Denniston AK, Oakden-Rayner L.
The Lancet Digital Health 2022.Reporting guidelines for clinical trial reports for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the CONSORT-AI extension
Liu X, Rivera SC, Moher D, Calvert MJ, Denniston AK & The SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group.
Nature Medicine 2020.Guidelines for clinical trial protocols for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the SPIRIT-AI extension
Rivera SC, Liu X, Chan A-W, Denniston AK, Calvert MJ & The SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI Working Group.
Nature Medicine 2020.A comparison of deep learning performance against health-care professionals in detecting diseases from medical imaging: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Liu X, Faes L, Kale AU, Wagner SK, Fu DJ, Bruynseels A, Mahendiran T, Moraes G, Shamdas M, Kern C, Ledsam JR, Schmid MK, Balaskas K, Topol EJ, Bachmann LM, Keane PA, Denniston AK.
The Lancet Digital Health 2019.Health data poverty: an assailable barrier to equitable digital health care
Ibrahim H, Liu X, Zariffa N, Morris AD, Denniston AK.
The Lancet Digital Health 2021.A global review of publicly available datasets for ophthalmological imaging: barriers to access, usability, and generalisability
Khan SM, Liu X, Nath S, Korot E, Faes L, Wagner SK, Keane PA, Sebire NJ, Burton MJ, Denniston AK.
The Lancet Digital Health 2021.Characteristics of publicly available skin cancer image datasets: a systematic review
Wen D, Khan SM, Ji Xu A, Ibrahim H, Smith L, Caballero J, Zepeda L, de Blas Perez C, Denniston AK, Liu X, Matin RN.
The Lancet Digital Health 2022.